


My Love

by Animedemon01



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: M/M, memory erasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-06 14:29:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18852949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animedemon01/pseuds/Animedemon01
Summary: Two short stories based on what would happen in the situation or either Jean-Paul or Antonio having their memories erased by VILE.





	1. Mon Amour

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this fic by this comic: https://orchidimpala.tumblr.com/post/182675472775/please-dont-take-him-away-from-me-el-topo-gets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellum nodded and motioned to a metal chair, revealing the object behind her back to be the same device she’d used on Gray not so long ago. “Have a seat, Antonio.”

“He’s just going to drag you down.” Brunt had told him after he’d first formed his partnership with Antonio, back when the two recruits had never considered dating, and the names _El Topo_ and _Le Chevre_ were so fresh and new. “He looks tough, sure, but muscles ain’t everything. I guarantee he’ll crack under the pressure sooner than later. I’d team up with someone more like Sheena, if I were you.”

Jean-Paul had no idea how VILE went about selecting their recruits (He wasn’t even told why _he_ was on interest to them), but Antonio never seemed to fit the bill of your typical villain. He had nothing that would single him out as more useful to VILE than anyone else.

On normal assignments, they were usually successful. Throw Carmen Sandiego into the mix, and failure was inevitable. They both liked Blacksheep when they were back at the Academy together, pretty much everyone did. She had the most experience with VILE, so despite her young age, they all assumed she’d graduate with them.

But after that heist, when she decided to go rogue, and change her name to Carmen Sandiego, their friendship with her turned into a deep hatred. Carmen was a traitor; she had turned against VILE, and thus her friends.

Every time Carmen Sandiego had showed up, their assignment had ended in failure. No matter what they did, how much work they put into it, how closely they followed the instructions of their superiors, she always beat them. She was just, better.

In Ecuador, she managed to steal the rare coin they were after without them even realizing it was no longer in the Tuna, leading them to return to VILE island with nothing but a stinking fish. In Australia, one of her associates had convinced Antonio that Jean-Paul had been attacked by dingo’s, thus tricking him into leaving his post to come to the Frenchman’s aid.

The very presence of Carmen Sandiego was the common denominator in all their failures, including their most recent one. They had been sent to Germany in order to steal a rare bottle of wine that was up for auction.

“It’s a comet vintage, made from grapes grown in the year 1874; the year the Coggia comet was spotted.” Countess Cleo had told them. “You are to steal the bottle before the auction, and return to me with it.”

While Jean-Paul did enjoy wine as much as the next Frenchman, he couldn’t understand why the Countess even wanted that bottle in the first place. Was she really planning on drinking it?

The assignment was supposed to be an easy one; the wine was being stored in the basement of the auction house, which as El Topo, Antonio would have no trouble tunneling into. But of course, Carmen Sandiego had to get involved and ruin everything.

He didn’t know how she figured out VILE’s plan to steal the wine, or why she even cared about it in the first place, and yet, she was there to stop them. She was able to access the tunnel Antonio had dug; Jean-Paul wasn’t able to get down to where they were fast enough, and couldn’t help him. During their fight, Antonio managed to dig into an underground water pipe, and accidentally flood the tunnel. Carmen got away, the wine taken while Antonio was distracted.

He dragged himself out of the hole, muddy and half-drowned, to a concerned Jean-Paul waiting for him. He collapsed to the ground, exhausted from his escape.

“I’m so sorry.” He rasped, coughing from the water that had found its way to his lungs. “I failed the mission; I failed you.”

Jean-Paul loved the other man with all his heart, and it killed him to see him like that. He sat down on the ground next to his boyfriend, and pulled him into his arm. “It’s not your fault, _mon amour_. Everything will be fine, just please don’t blame yourself.

Antonio gave a weak smile in return.

 

When they returned to VILE Island, Jean-Paul couldn’t help but feel like something was off. They’d come back from assignments empty-handed before, but something about this time felt different. He quickly shook the feeling off as the two of them headed off the report their failure to Countess Cleo.

He expected just the Countess to be waiting for their return, but instead they were greeted by Dr. Bellum and Maelstrom as well; the pair staring at them from a few feet behind the Countess, emotionless. Bellum was holding something behind her back. Something was definitely up, but Antonio, who was half asleep at this point, didn’t seem to notice.

“A little birdie told me you two failed your assignment.” Countess Cleo told them. “Don’t bother trying to explain yourselves; we already know everything.”

Jean-Paul knew exactly what she meant by _little bird_. They had started using an operative a year younger than him-who went by the name of Magpie-as a spy in situations where Mime Bomb would stand out too much. She had likely been hiding in one of the trees near the entrance of the tunnel the whole time. The Countess must have expected them to fail if she had gone through the trouble of sending Magpie.

“My apologies.” He said. “It won’t happen again.”

Maelstrom stepped forward. “You’re right; it won’t. You two have a bit of a record of failure, a streak we feel with eventually get you captured. In order to protect VILE from future incidents, we have decided to take a few precautions. After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Jean-Paul’s eyes grew wide. “What do you plan to do to us?”

 “To you? Nothing. You’ve always shown great promise; you’re far from the weakest link.” Maelstrom said before turning to Dr. Bellum. “Bellum, I believe its time.”

She nodded and motioned to a metal chair, revealing the object behind her back to be the same device she’d used on Gray not so long ago. “Have a seat, Antonio.”

Jean-Paul knew exactly what was happening, but before he could react, he was restrained and being dragged away by the Cleaners.

“ _Nooooon_!” He shouted. “Not _mon amour_!”

But there was nothing he could do. He could only watch as the now panicking Antonio was cuffed to the chair.

“Now, now, this won’t hurt a bit.” She told him as he struggled in vain against his restraints. “In just a second, it’ll be all over.”


	2. Mi Amor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m afraid you’re a little late.” Dr. Bellum told him.

“He’s just going to drag you down.” He’d overhead Brunt tell Jean-Paul. “He looks tough, sure, but muscles ain’t everything. I guarantee he’ll crack under the pressure sooner than later. I’d team up with someone more like Sheena, if I were you.”

Antonio didn’t know why VILE even bothered to recruit him in the first place. He was constantly screwing up, and felt like he was just deadweight.

Jean-Paul never heeded Brunt’s words, however. No matter how many times Antonio failed, he never turned his back on him as a partner in crime, and certainly not as a boyfriend.

 As much as he loved Jean-Paul, he always felt like he was dragging in the other man down. The day he’d overheard Brunt talking to Jean-Paul was the day their class was all supposed climb the two story tall rock wall for the first time. Antonio was terrified of heights, and unsurprisingly ended panicking half way up, too afraid to move at all. Despite Brunt threatening him with detention if he did so, Jean-Paul still climbed up help him finish the climb, and return to the ground afterwards. They had only been friends at that point, but the event was a real turning point in their relationship.

In the end, Antonio wished that Jean-Paul had taken Brunt’s advice and found a more capable partner. The number one rule of working for VILE was to never get caught. If you failed your assignment, life would go on. But if you got caught, there were no second chances. They’d erase all memories of VILE, leaving you to essentially lose a year or more of your life. You’d wake up in a hospital, and they’d tell you that you’d been in a coma. Any memories you did retain from your time in VILE would seem like nothing more than coma dream.

Antonio always believed he’d be the one to get caught if an assignment went bad. After all, Jean-Paul was always the more competent of the two of them. But when things went sour on their last assignment, the events didn’t play out the way they had in his head.

They had almost beat Carmen Sandiego, but yet again, she came out the victor. They were supposed to steal a priceless sculpture from a museum. How Carmen managed to know about the plan, he’d never know. She always seemed to be waiting to stop them, no matter what they did.

Just as they were disabling the alarms, she showed up. Antonio had been so surprised by her sudden appearance that he managed to accidentally set off the very alarm they were trying to disable. The police were on their way; they didn’t have much time to get out of there.

He yelled for Jean-Paul to get the sculpture while he fought off Carmen. Physically, he was much stronger than her, but he forgot one of the most important rules of hand-to-hand combat; always protect the face. She elbowed him across the face, and shoved him through a glass window.

They weren’t too high up, so the fall wasn’t enough to cause any serious damage. He landed hard on his right arm, and from the pain and his inability to move it, he assumed it was probably broken.

As the police surrounded the building, Carmen escaped out the same window she’d just thrown him through. Jean-Paul, however, was still in the building. Antonio didn’t know why the Frenchman hadn’t escaped yet, but he desperately wanted to go back for him. Unfortunately, thanks to the fall, he was having trouble just getting to his feet.

“ _Mi amor_!” He shouted. “Noooooo!”

 

VILE didn’t locate Antonio until two days after the incident. They found him hiding underground not far from the scene of the crime, injured and afraid.

As soon as they arrived on the island, despite his injuries, he took off running. He had to find Dr. Bellum before it was too late. When he finally located her, she seemed rather surprised to see him.

“After two days of no contact, I assumed you were dead.” She said. “Had the Cleaners not found you soon, you probably would be.”

“Where’s Jean-Paul?” He demanded. “I want to see him before…”

His voice trailed off, he didn’t even want to think about what was going to happen to the other man.

“I’m afraid you’re a little late.” She told him. “You see, VILE is a very efficient organization. Jean-Paul was dealt with yesterday. At this point, he’s probably back in France, with no memory of you ever existing.”

Antonio began to panic, and froze. He couldn’t speak, or move, or even breathe. Dr. Bellum, on the other hand, seemed far too calm.

“When I heard they’d found you, I knew something like this might happen, so I can prepared.” She said, fishing around in her pocket. “I kind of figured you’d attack me. You hardly seem like a violent person, but they always say it’s the ones you least expect. What I didn’t expect was the panic attack. Either way, this should fix all you problems.”

She pulled a syringe filled with a clear liquid out of her pocket, uncapped it, and jabbed the needle into his good arm.

“It’s a sedative.” She told him. “Just something to calm you down a bit. It should take effect momentarily.”

She was right; in less than a minute, everything went black.

 

Antonio woke up in the bedroom he had shared with Jean-Paul, alone. His arm was in a cast, and the cuts he had from the window had been cleaned and bandaged up. The two of them had shared that room since they’d graduated VILE academy; they’d even pushed the two beds together into one big bed they’d shared. But for the first time ever, Antonio woke up alone.

No! This wasn’t happening; Jean-Paul couldn’t be gone. It had to be a dream.

“ _Mi amor_!” He called. “Jean-Paul? Please answer me!”

There was no reply. As must as he wanted it all to just be some horrible nightmare; it wasn’t. Jean-Paul was gone forever. He broke down and cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time I write about these two, I promise it will be a little less depressing.


End file.
